The large-aperture synoptic survey telescope

An 8.4-meter aperture 3-mirror telescope with 7 deg(2) field of view and uniformly excellent image quality will provide an unprecedented figure of merit for deep surveys. Such a telescope with an etendue of 260 M 2 deg2, ten times greater than any other current or planned telescope, is feasible now. Equal emphasis will be placed on the survey products, their unique science capability and distribution to the community, the data pipeline, the camera and data system, and the telescope. In the ranked projects in the recent U.S. NRC AASC Decadal Survey for Astronomy, this facility was named the "Large-aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope" (LSST) to emphasize its multiple missions. We review LSST's science drivers and the evolution of its design.